


Country Roads, Take Me Home

by TaraHarkon



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Gen, Mama is West Virginia, Mama is not human, Song Lyrics, Songfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-30
Updated: 2018-06-30
Packaged: 2019-05-30 18:22:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,039
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15102362
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TaraHarkon/pseuds/TaraHarkon
Summary: Mama has worn many faces through her existence and been many things to many people. She is far more than she appears.An exploration of what she could be.





	Country Roads, Take Me Home

Reaching the click the radio on, the woman behind the wheel of the old pick-up truck bounced down the dirt track that passed for a road around these parts. A familiar guitar riff picked up and she smiled slowly as the dulcet tones of John Denver filled the cab. She hummed along as she turned onto the highway. She’d been gone so long, longer than she’d planned this time, but she’d be home soon.

* * *

Almost heaven, West Virginia  
Blue ridge mountains, Shenandoah river  
Life is old there, older than the trees  
Younger than the mountains, blowing like a breeze

* * *

She was born the same way all of her kind are born, with the flames of the molten earth and the chill of the air against her skin and the fresh taste of clear water on her tongue. She didn’t have a name then, she simply was. She wandered the forests, waded in the rivers, and played in the valleys. The sky was spread over her like a tapestry. Time passed and she was no longer alone. Animals and people flocked to her woods. That was the first time her form changed, her molten form turning soft and flesh. As the years past, more people arrived from across the seas and she found herself among them as well. She had a name by now, one that everyone agreed on. She was older than the trees but younger than the mountains and she was Mama.

* * *

Country roads, take me home  
To the place I belong  
West Virginia  
Mountain Mama, take me home  
Country roads

* * *

When they first built Amnesty Lodge, Mama knew this would be a good thing. Good for the people from Sylvaine who needed a place to stay, and good for her land and her people that needed to be protected from the things that appeared around the Gate. The Abominations threatened her Place and she wouldn’t stand for that. It went against her purpose and her nature. She was the mountains and the rivers, she was the valleys and the creeks. This place was hers and no unnatural creatures would ever tarnish her home.

* * *

All my memories, gather round her  
Modest lady, stranger to blue water  
Dark and dusty, painted on the sky  
Misty taste of moonshine, teardrop in my eye

* * *

She wore yet another face when she went to Sylvaine for the first time, when she saw the crystal they fed from and met their council. She had walked the streets and in their shops. This land was no hers and it did not welcome her. The grass didn’t sing in her veins and the wind didn’t caress her cheeks. The stones didn’t know her here in Sylvaine and that was alright. This was, she realized, what it was like to be human. This was what it was like to be disconnected. It was something she would never forget. No matter how many faces she wore, no matter how many centuries passed, she would remember.

* * *

Country roads, take me home  
To the place I belong  
West Virginia  
Mountain Mama, take me home  
Country roads

* * *

 

The exiles were her people now too. The exiles of Sylvaine who lived in Amnesty Lodge were as much her people as the humans who lived in the town. They were disconnected now and she gave them a place to be. They gave her a family. And that was how she met Barclay.

She’d been tracking the stories of ‘Big Foot’ for a while as he moved all over the country, trying to figure out how to get him to come to the Lodge. The sightings had been getting closer and closer and he was finally in her woods. She walked along the Monongahela, brushing out tracks and grabbing up the tufts of hair stuck to bushes. Couldn’t have that, now could we? At the end of the path, she found a young man sitting by the river. He looked small and scared but she knew who he was, what he was.

“Got yourself in a bit of trouble, didn’t you?”

He looked up and bit back a response. She held out her hand with a smile.

“Want a way to get out of trouble? Because leaving more footprints around here to make folks ask questions sure isn’t the way to do it.”

He stood and took her hand.

“The name’s Barclay.”

She nodded and shook his hand firmly.

“Call me Mama. Come with me, and I’ll show you to Amnesty Lodge.”

* * *

  
I hear her voice in the morning hour she calls me  
Radio reminds me of my home far away  
Driving down the road I get a feeling  
That I should have been home yesterday, yesterday

* * *

The National Radio Quiet Zone sang with the songs of crickets and peepers as Mama walked the backwoods with her rifle in one hand and a flashlight in the other. Somewhere out here was an Abomination that had taken one of hers and she wasn’t none pleased about it. They’d have to reinforce the protections around the Lodge, maybe recruit more for the Pine Guard. She couldn’t do this alone anymore. Maybe she had never been able to protect this land alone.

There was a rustle in the trees behind her and Mama whirled, rifle raised. A shadow loomed over her that spoke with a human voice, a voice she knew. But this wasn’t her teammate, not anymore.

“Mama?”

Mama pulled the trigger without hesitation and the shot rang out through the Monongahela National Forest. Mama walked back to Amnesty Lodge alone that night but her forest was safe just like always.

* * *

  
Country roads, take me home  
To the place I belong  
West Virginia  
Mountain Mama, take me home  
Country roads

* * *

Passing the sign along the side of the highway, the woman known simply as Mama adjusted her rearview mirror and flicked her turn signal on. This was her exit. _Welcome to Kepler, West Virginia._ She smiled at the sign. Time to go see how her latest batch of Pine Guard were doing without her.

* * *

Country roads, take me home  
To the place I belong  
West Virginia  
Mountain Mama, take me home  
Country roads  
Take me home, down country roads

Take me home, down country roads


End file.
